Two weeks into the Israeli campaign against Hamas in Gaza, more than 700 Palestinians have been killed, at least 4,000 injured and 150,000 displaced, according to the un. The Israelis have lost at least 32 soldiers and three civilians. Ban Ki-moon, the un secretary-general, who has been trying in vain to mediate, said that this round of war has been worse than the Israelis' previous biggest effort to knock out Hamas, in 2008-09, because Palestinian civilians this time have "no way out". Gazan schools run by the un's refugee agency, where at least 140,000 Palestinians have sought shelter, have been hit. The Israelis say it is inevitable that civilians will be hurt, because Hamas uses them as human shields, by putting rocket-launchers and other military facilities in areas and buildings crammed with civilians. The United States and the European Union have defended Israel's "right to self-defence" in the face of Hamas's rockets. But a growing chorus of international human-rights organisations are accusing Israel of committing war crimes.
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